The next Government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will provide free Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) at the secondary and tertiary levels as well as offer free National Apprenticeship Programme.

The next NDC Government under Mr John Dramani Mahama as President and Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang as the Vice President will establish centres in TVET institutions in districts to provide free training and sponsor youth for free apprenticeship training with certified master craftsmen/women.

The government of NDC will rebrand TVET to promote interest and acceptability amongst the youth as a programme of first choice and provide incentives for TVET students and instructors.

It will re-launch the Skills Development Fund (SDF) to serve as an intervention fund to cater for TVET graduates and others who venture into self-employment and encourage and provide packages for females to enroll and be retained in male-dominant vocations.

The next NDC Government will train more TVET teachers; intensify practical and theoretical knowledge in technical and vocational training; regularly engage stakeholders to narrow the gap between industry and training and deepen life skills, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in TVET curriculum to create more jobs.

The NDC in its Election 2020 People’s Manifesto under the sub-heading; “providing globally competitive and quality education,” said it will also commence a programme for the establishment of ultramodern and fit-for-purpose Technical Institutes in all regions that do not have any.

On special needs education, the next NDC Government will collaborate with the Paediatric Society of Ghana and parents to institute early medical screening for new-borns and pre-school children in order to identify children with special needs and address their challenges.

It will ensure the training of more facilitators in specialized areas to effectively assist children with disability and monitor their growth; provide modern assistive medical devices such as hearing aids and walking sticks to children with special needs.

It will expand existing areas of expertise beyond visual and hearing impairment; incentivize qualified special educators and other multi-disciplinary team members to forestall their high attrition rates; and implement a programme to aggressively re-equip all special needs schools and improve the learning conditions of staff and students.

The NDC said it would significantly increase the budgetary allocation to special schools; provide affordable special needs schools; provide tax reliefs for working parents with special needs children to enable them pay for 24-hour care for the children while at work.